A UK cat that purrs as loudly as a kettle won the Guinness World Record for the loudest purr in existence on Tuesday, to the delight of its owner, who keeps the humming going from morning to night.
“We always knew that Bella purred very loudly – we even had to turn up the volume to hear her purr on the TV – and always after dinner,” Nicole Spink, Bella’s owner, told reporters with a laugh. Guinness World Records (GWR) Tuesday.
Bella, 14, received top honors on Tuesday for her loud purring at 54.59 decibels, about the same as a boiling kettle and not far from a washing machine, the organization said.
“Friends and family always notice Bella’s loud purring and everyone asks, ‘What’s that loud noise?’ Oh, it’s the cat. It’s just Bella who is happy!” continued her owner from Huntingdon, England.
And strangely enough, the cat purred everywhere, even at the vet, Nicole Spink added.
After leafing through the Guinness Book of World Records, the woman and her daughter downloaded an app to compare their cat’s purrs to the current winner’s and realized greedy Bella had a chance to dethrone him – especially after a meal, she said.
While she now holds the record for the loudest purr from a living cat, the all-time record would be held by Smokey from Northampton in the UK, who achieved the 67.8 decibel output in 2011.
It was equaled four years later by Merlin from Devon in the same country, but according to the GWR no cat has yet managed to overtake it.